Domenico Ghislandi (ca. 1620–1717)
St. Lorenzo Giustiniani Gives Communion to a Nun

Basilica of San Pietro, Venice

This episode is recounted in Bernardo Giustiniani's life of his uncle Lorenzo (Acta Sanctorum, January vol. 1, 559). A nun of great sanctity was too ill to leave her cell and thus unable to go to receive communion. But while Lorenzo was celebrating Mass in a nearby church he had the feeling of being outside himself. A "spirit" suddenly carried him away to the nun, and he gave her communion in her cell ("whether in spirit or in the flesh, God knows"). Then, when he was taken back to the church the people had no sense that he had ever left.

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Photographed at the basilica by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.